Long Island Six Reaffirm Backing Of Permanent Tax Cap

From the Morning Memo:

The six Democrats who represent the state Senate on Long Island in a joint statement on Wednesday reaffirmed their backing a permanent property tax cap, saying they would continue to push for the measure through the state budget process.

The state Senate approved a standalone version of the bill in February; the Assembly is yet to take up the measure.

“Providing tax relief to Long Islanders is our top priority and, therefore, the inclusion of the permanent tax cap in the final budget is essential,” the lawmakers said in the statement. “Importantly, our conference, lead by Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, included this provision in our one-house budget resolution, and we will continue to fight for its enactment in the coming weeks.”

The statement from Sens. John Brooks, Jim Gaughran, Anna Kaplan, Todd Kaminsky, Monica Martinez, and Kevin Thomas comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly stumped around the state for the issue, which he said is needed even more after a $10,000 limit was placed on state and local tax deductions.

Supporters of a permanent tax cap, meanwhile, also point to Amazon’s decision to back out of a project in Queens that would have tied $3 billion in tax incentives to the creation of up to 25,000 jobs.

The cap doesn’t expire until next year, but has been linked in the past to rent control regulations for New York City, which sunset in June.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in an interview Wednesday with WCNY’s The Capitol Pressroom said the issue is still under discussion, but added the tax cap itself is no danger of expiring.

The cap for Cuomo is a key economic achievement from his first term. He said this week he would not be willing to consider changes to the cap such as no longer setting the limit to the rate of inflation or making it easier to override.

This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on March 14, 2019 at 5:45 am, and is filed under State Senate. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.